Final round of ticket sales for 2010 Olympics to begin on Saturday

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The final formal round of ticket sales to the 2010 Winter Games begins Saturday with seats available to all events in the Vancouver-area.

But transportation challenges mean organizers are no longer selling seats to Nordic and alpine events in Whistler, B.C.

The decision to cut off sales wasn't unexpected, said Caley Denton, vice-president of ticketing for the organizing committee, known as VANOC.

"It was one of those things from the get-go. We said we have lots of space up in these venues but we need to make sure we run a great transport system that's easy for people to use and efficient," he said.

"We can't do that up in the hubs at Whistler. There is limited space at a venue to unload buses or load buses."

A special sale of remaining tickets to events in Whistler was held for area residents only in October and Denton said the grandstands are now sold out.

The Whistler region has posed several challenges for the organizing committee, with the biggest issue being accommodation.

But the committee announced Tuesday it has finally reserved all the space it needs for its 6,000-strong workforce in the area, including berths on a cruise ship to be docked in Squamish and rooms in people's homes.

"This is an important milestone for the organizing committee to reach and free up any remaining accommodation inventory for visitors with approximately 100 days to go before the start of the Games," Jacqui Murdoch, VANOC's vice president of services and accommodation, said in a statement.

How many visitors are actually coming to the Games remains a big question.

Organizers have not released ticket sales data to the public or even to their tourism partners.

Denton said some information may be released in the coming days following a survey that VANOC did of ticket buyers.

More tickets may become available in Whistler once organizers see how many people actually buy the bus tickets required to get up there, said Denton.

The round-trip between Vancouver and Whistler will cost $25 and should go on sale soon.

Private cars will not be allowed on the highway unless people can prove they have a parking spot in the resort mountain community.

For Vancouver events, more than 100,000 tickets are still available, including seats at gold-medal hockey and the opening and closing ceremonies.

They'll be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis through the Olympic committee's website and VISA is the only credit card accepted as they are a major sponsor of the Games.

Sales begin at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday.

Overall, there are 1.6 million tickets being sold to the Games.

Seventy per cent of the total have been set aside for sale to the general public, while 30 per cent are reserved for what's known as the Olympic family: sports federations, sponsors and other "official" Olympic partners.

Tickets to the nightly victory ceremonies are also going on sale Saturday, though organizers are still unable to announce who exactly is going to be performing at the events.

They are also in the final stages of testing their own ticket resale website which they expect to launch later this year to help people sell tickets they can't use.

A fee will be charged for use of the site but organizers say it will be less than that levied on similar web sites. People will also be able to set their own price for their tickets.

Organizers filed two lawsuits against companies reselling Olympic tickets, which they consider a violation of the terms of agreement on the tickets themselves.

The committee has threatened to invalidate the tickets of any found selling their seats to companies like that, but Denton said no tickets have yet been cancelled.

Organizers expect people to start receiving their tickets in the mail via Purlolator in December.